Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was in a “important” condition on Friday following an assassination attempt, doctors said.
Nasheed, 53, the Maldives’ first democratically elected president and still an important figure in the island nation’s murky politics, was rushed to hospital after an explosion late Thursday.
Since then he has undergone 16 hours of life-saving operations in the capital Male for injuries to his head, chest, abdomen and limbs.
The private ADK hospital said Friday evening that Nasheed was “in a critical condition in intensive care”.
Solih described the assault as an assault on the fledgling democracy, promising the perpetrators “would face the complete drive of the regulation”.
Police said officials from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime have also been asked to assist in the investigation.
Maldivian police said they were treating Thursday’s bomb attack as a “deliberate act of terror” and urged the general public to supply any info that might determine the perpetrators.
Police stated a tool connected to a motorbike was detonated as Nasheed bought right into a automobile within the capital.
The hospital stated earlier that shrapnel had been faraway from certainly one of his lungs and from his liver however that one other piece was nonetheless in the identical organ.
“We are hopeful of a full restoration,” said a family member who did not want to be named, adding that Nasheed was responsive and spoke with doctors when he was admitted.
One of his bodyguards as well as a British national were also wounded and taken to hospital.
Underwater cabinet
The Indian Ocean nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims is best known for its luxury holiday resorts popular with honeymooners, but it suffers from regular political turmoil.
Nasheed had vowed to investigate a $90-million theft from the state’s tourism promotion authority during the tenure of former president Abdulla Yameen.
“There are some dormant Islamists who could have collaborated with political elements threatened by Nasheed’s anti-corruption drive,” an MDP supply advised AFP.
The authorities has cracked down on extremism and overseas preachers are banned.
Violent assaults have been uncommon, although a dozen overseas vacationers have been wounded by a bomb blast in Male in 2007.
The Islamic State claimed a ship arson assault final 12 months, however there’s little proof the group has a presence within the archipelago.
Nasheed, a liberal, is possibly greatest recognized internationally for holding a 2009 underwater cupboard assembly to spotlight the specter of world warming, signing paperwork as officers wore scuba gear in opposition to a backdrop of coral reefs.
He was toppled in a military-backed coup in February 2012, convicted on a cost of terrorism and jailed for 13 years.
He left the nation on jail depart for medical therapy and sought refuge in Britain.
He returned after his nominee Solih gained the presidency in 2018, successful parliamentary elections the subsequent 12 months to change into speaker.
Messages of help for Nasheed poured in on Friday from neighbouring India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in addition to Western nations, which have strongly backed his pro-democracy and environmental activism.
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